HEALTH & FITNESS: Bowflex is a good addition to home gym

Advertisement

As a general rule, I steer clear of any product advertised at 3 a.m. during films featuring David Hasselhoff.

OK, I do own The Magic Bullet, but that was a gift and, dang it, I needed to make everyone in my household their own flavor smoothie with no extra hassle and easy cleanup.

That being said, I recently had the opportunity to work out on the Bowflex Xtreme 2 Home Gym, and it's just as good as the narrator with the stentorian voice says it is.

For most people, the Bowflex straddles the line between professional gym equipment and late-night infomercial junk. In actuality, it's the best piece of exercise equipment someone is likely to have in his home, although it's rarely seen in a professional gym. It's sturdy and versatile, allowing the user to exercise a range of muscle groups on one machine.

For readers unfamiliar with Bowflex products, they are an assortment of pulleys and quick-release clips that attach to a set of flexible rods of varying thickness. To change the weight, you simply attach or detach rods. You can change the weight from 10 pounds -- 5 on each side -- to 310 pounds in seconds. Additional weights are available.

As you exert force, the rod bows, hence the name. With a traditional weight machine, you quickly release the weight and X number of pounds of heavy and relatively brittle iron crashes down on all the other weights. With the Bowflex, the worst that happens is a plastic rod wobbles back and forth, making Warner Bros. cartoon noises.

The drawback to Bowflex is the same as with any home gym system: It's big, cumbersome and, from an interior design standpoint, ugly. Oh, it's not as ugly as some machines.

But particularly while it's in use, it resembles some sort of robot spider trying to mate with you.

You need to have the space to dedicate to it, preferably out of sight of the Louis XVI dining set. The Bowflex is almost 7 feet tall.

Bowflex marketers have claimed in the past that you could easily fold them up and store them in a closet, which assumes the user has both a surplus of closet space -- the machines would fill most closets -- and an open place to drag it to work out.

Cost is an issue. The Bowflex sells for $1,599 on the company's Web site, and a couple hundred dollars less on various auction sites.

Either way, you can purchase three or four years worth of a gym membership at that price, and not have to look at the thing every day.

It boils down to your resources, space and ability to remain motivated.

If you honestly feel you can get yourself on the machine on a regular basis, then this is the best all-around exercise device to own.

If, like the vast majority of the population, you think you'll work out for a couple of weeks and then the machine will spend the rest of its time with you lurking in the corner resembling a dusty, yet easy-to-ignore robot spider, there are better things to do with your money.

F. Andrew Taylor is a Las Vegas freelance writer. His column appears twice monthly. Contact him at fandrewt@cox.net.